What is blended learning?

At UW–Madison, blended courses are instructor-designed and supervised environments that use face-to-face and technology-mediated channels to enhance interactive, engaging learning experiences and to improve student learning outcomes. Blended courses should have the one or more of the following pedagogical characteristics:

• a shift from teacher-centered instruction to student-centered learning;
• significant interactions between student-instructor, student-student, and/or student-content; and/or
• integrate formative and summative assessment for students and instructor.

On this campus, courses have three technology-mediation designations:

• technology-enhanced: Less than 30% of the course includes technology-mediated learning activities.
• blended: 30-99% of the course includes technology-mediated learning activities.
• online: 100% of the course includes technology-mediated learning activities. – Blended Learning Fellowship Program

What is
active
learning?

“Within a blended course at UW-Madison, active learning is the outcome of an experiential teaching approach that facilitates increased student engagement and higher-order cognition through instructor-guided, learner-centered, thought-provoking interactions in all components of the course (pre-class, in-class, and post-class). These interactions are meant to demonstrate discipline-specific methodological approaches to knowledge, align with course/program learning outcomes, provide evidence of learning to instructor and students, and reveal the learning processes students use. Examples of active learning include interactions such as: reflection, discussion, exploration, collaboration, experimentation, analysis, and construction of new knowledge. To learn more about active learning approaches, go to the Using Active Learning in the Classroom resource.”  – Blended Learning Fellowship on Active Learning